Various prior art systems exist for providing skiers, snowboarders and athletes taking part in other sports with information regarding their performance. Many current solutions such as handheld GPS devices, performance measurement units, wristwatches, and mobile phones require the user to stop, and possibly remove gloves, in order to extract the device and look at the information. This can create discomfort, waste time, causes delay and may furthermore be prone to inaccurate measurements.
Many existing electronic performance measurement devices for skiers, snowboarders and other athletes use GPS techniques and require bulky sensor modules mounted at various parts of the user's body. Most of the existing GPS-based devices for skiing and snowboarding have the following limitations: the GPS data is prone to atmospheric delay errors; and while the GPS-based position errors are generally bounded, the GPS signal can be lost when the corresponding satellites are geometrically inaccessible. Most of the available equipment includes one or more sensors attached to the limbs or equipment of the skier that use wireless communication to the main unit. This makes it inconvenient to use and prone to data errors due to interference and signal attenuation. Furthermore, the output displays of current technologies are often very inconvenient to access and lack user-friendly interfaces.
Patents and published applications relating to methods and systems for providing users with performance information, include the following:                International Patent Application Publication No. WO 2008/027415 to Orth et al.        United States Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0287596 to Case, Jr. et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,437 to Howell et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,846 to Vock et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,924,764 to Chen        U.S. Pat. No. 6,441,846 to Carlbom et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,828 to Furness et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,714 to Purdy et al.        
The inventors have determined a need for improved methods and systems for providing performance information to users.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.